District 4, Parcel 1665 — Reconstruction Project

Condition Assessment

After the February 2023 earthquakes the building, which stood within the Antakya Urban Conservation Area, collapsed entirely, and its debris was sorted and removed from the site. The work therefore does not constitute a damage assessment in the conventional sense: it was conceived as a condition assessment focused on documenting the traces surviving at foundation level rather than any standing architectural elements. The spatial organisation, plan scheme and original architectural features of the building were reread and recorded by assessing together the foundation traces, the material remains identified in the debris field, oral history studies and written and visual archival documents. The aim was thus to document systematically the material and documentary traces of a cultural property that no longer exists.

BasisVenice Charter art. 16 · Law No. 2863 · Regional Conservation Board notification

Measured Survey — Excavation Survey

As the building had collapsed completely, an excavation survey was carried out instead of a measured survey. Rather than being cleared wholesale by machine, the debris was removed under control and in layers, and the architectural data revealed in each layer was measured and photographed before removal continued.

The foundation walls, wall bases, floor levels and traces of the ashlar paving of the courtyard that were uncovered have been digitised. The sheets produced cover the French cadastral sheet and cadastral situation, the site plan, the licensed survey boundary, the excavation plan and sections AA and BB.

Drawings from the excavation survey sheet that describe this stage

BasisVenice Charter art. 16 · Charter for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage

Restitution

Restitution is the evidence-based reconstruction of the building’s original state before its collapse. On this parcel the work rests on the 1929 Ville d’Antioche cadastral sheet, photographs of the courtyard and interior taken before the earthquake, the roof layout read from an aerial photograph and an oral history study.

On the sheet, every restitution decision is marked against a three-level reliability legend: decisions confirmed by traces in the building and by period documents are shown as first degree, those based on comparative study of similar buildings as second degree, and those for which there is insufficient data and which remain proposals as third degree. It therefore stays legible on the drawing which information rests on evidence and which on interpretation.

Plan and elevation decisions from the restitution sheet

BasisVenice Charter art. 9–13 · Nara Document on Authenticity

Restoration Decisions

As the building was no longer standing, the conservation decisions turned towards defining the original qualities of the building to be rebuilt rather than intervening in existing fabric. The walls were defined as a three-layer stone section and the internal partitions as bağdadi lath-and-plaster and brick; the courtyard and entrance were determined as ashlar paving, the ground floor rooms as cast mosaic, and the upper floor as timber flooring.

Material and construction-system decisions

BasisVenice Charter art. 9–12 · Law No. 2863

Reconstruction

The reconstruction project defines the rebuilding of the original configuration established in the restitution, together with current building-safety requirements. The entrance, courtyard, two rooms, office, kitchen and plant room on the ground floor, and the hall, five rooms and wet spaces above, have all been rebuilt in keeping with the original plan scheme.

The 139 m² area of the courtyard, its ashlar paving and the sequence of spaces around it have been preserved; the upper-floor timber gallery and the hipped roof have been redefined with their original pitch and eaves arrangement.

Elevations and sections from the reconstruction sheet

BasisVenice Charter art. 15 · Riga Charter · Regional Conservation Board approval

Construction and Supervision

The construction stage is the process of producing the exact counterpart of the approved project on site. Door, window, cupboard and stair details were drawn at working scale, and the frame, sill and stone-wall junction details of the timber joinery were defined individually.

Traditional construction details at working scale

BasisVenice Charter art. 16 · Construction supervision and archiving

Hipped Roof Clad in Alaturka Tiles

Because Antakya has heavy rainfall, roofs are steep and pitched; all are hipped roofs clad in alaturka tiles. The eaves project over both courtyard and street, giving shade and protecting the walls from rain. All of the upper-floor rooms sit directly beneath the timber roof.

Arched Stone Entrance Door

The element that establishes the relationship between street and house is the entrance door set within the thick, blank courtyard wall. On the Halk Sokak elevation this opening is framed in ashlar and spanned by a semicircular arch. The door leads directly into the courtyard; there is no intermediate space between street and courtyard.

Timber-Framed Windows

The windows are double-leaf units built with box-section timber profiles. The ground floor windows are smaller and framed in ashlar, while the upper floor windows form wider openings together with the timber oriel and gallery arrangement.

The Courtyard’s External Stair

Access to the upper floor is by an external stair rising within the courtyard. The stair is not only a circulation element: the space beneath it becomes storage or a shaded area and its landing becomes part of courtyard life; above, it connects to the timber gallery that serves the hall.

The Courtyard — Centre of the House

At 139 m², the courtyard of this house is far larger than usual and is unquestionably the centre of the plan. With its ashlar paving, the rooms arranged around it and the timber gallery above, it works like a “sofa” hall linking every unit; through the long summer, much of daily life is spent here.

Mixed Construction System and Silhouette

The walls are built as a three-layer section of 20 cm rubble-stone masonry, 10 cm fill and 20 cm ashlar facing, with bağdadi lath-and-plaster and brick used for the internal partitions. The ground floor carries the weight of stone, the upper floor the lightness of timber; in this language the building joins the Halk Sokak silhouette.